The problem of the Pleiades distance. Constraints from Stromgren photometry of nearby field stars

TL;DR

This study uses Stromgren photometry of field stars with similar metallicity to the Pleiades to independently determine its distance, finding a larger distance modulus than Hipparcos measurements and questioning recent low-metallicity solutions.

Contribution

It develops a new technique to locate the ZAMS using Stromgren photometry and field stars, providing an independent distance estimate for the Pleiades that challenges previous results.

Findings

Pleiades distance modulus is 5.61 mag, larger than Hipparcos value of 5.36 mag.

The method confirms the distance estimate is robust against metallicity variations.

The discrepancy may be related to the cluster's non-spherical shape.

Abstract

The discrepancy between the Pleiades cluster distance based on Hipparcos parallaxes and main sequence fitting is investigated on the basis of Stromgren photometry of F-type stars. Field stars with the same metallicity as the Pleiades have been selected from the m1 index and a technique has been developed to locate the ZAMS of these field stars in color-magnitude diagrams based on the color/temperature indices b-y, v-y, and beta. Fitting the Pleiades to these ZAMS relations results in a distance modulus of 5.61+/-0.03 mag in contrast to the Hipparcos modulus of 5.36+/-0.06 mag. Hence, we cannot confirm the recent claim by Grenon (1999) that the distance problem is solved by adopting a low metallicity of the Pleiades ([Fe/H]=-0.11) as determined from Geneva photometry. The metallicity sensitivity of the ZAMS determined by the field stars is investigated, and by combining this sensitivity in all three color/temperature indices b-y, v-y, and beta we get a independent test of the Pleiades distance modulus which support our value of 5.61 mag. Furthermore, the field star sample used for the comparison is tested against theoretical isochrones of different ages to show that evolutionary effects in the field star sample are not biasing our distance modulus estimate significantly. Possible explanations of the Pleiades distance problem are discussed and it is suggested that the discrepancy in the derived moduli may be linked to a non-spherical shape of the cluster.